I saw this at my train stop this morning…
Does this look familiar?
All ideologies naturally proselytize themselves…why should they not? They are truth claims about the world outside. Unless you are a strict relativist or skeptic about all things…then you won’t be proselytizing anything EXCEPT skepticism and relativism. Anyone here ever met anyone like that? They are rare but they exist. The only other time where people cease to tell others about what they believe is when they are told (usually by either a relativist or one disagreeing with them) that it is offensive to do so and instead of proselytizing, ecumenism to the exclusion of all other approaches becomes their only concern. I hope more people in the Catholic Church realize how damaging it is to believe the doctrine contained in scripture and tradition, but consider ecumenism the ‘real’ work of Christianity. Ecumenism is a part and the word has been twisted as Pope Benedict has said, ecumenism should essentially mean ‘you-come-in-ism.”
[T]he Church is Catholic from her first moment, her universality is not the fruit of the successive inclusion of various communities. 12 June 2011
Today, therefore, one of the fundamental questions consists of the problematic of the methods to be adopted in the various ecumenical dialogues. These also must reflect the priority of faith. To know the truth is the right of the interlocutor in every true dialogue. It is the very demand of charity for the brother. In this sense, it is necessary to face with courage also the controversial questions, always in the spirit of fraternity and reciprocal respect. It is important to offer a correct interpretation of that “order or ‘hierarchy’ of truth in Catholic doctrine,” mentioned in the Decree Unitatis redintegratio (n. 11), which does not mean in any way reducing the deposit of faith, but to make emerge the internal structure, the organicity of this one structure. -Benedict XVI, 27 January 2012
Many times there is focus on dialogue for the sake of dialog it appears and not enough on genuine pursuit of what is actually the case in reality. . There are many souls at stake and if Catholics believe what they say they do, they will be acting in a way that corresponds-which is helping other people to believe the same thing-just does the humanists and Mormons and all people who believe anything other than merely “watching football is fun” are doing.
I know, I know, if a liberal Catholic or another reads this then I’m going to be labeled stuck in the mud, old fashioned and closed minded. This is what I have to say about that:
I just happen to believe that syncretism is not the answer. Someone should not stop pursuing the truth with another person just because in the end they might ‘feel bad’. To not tell that person the truth as you see it is doing that person an injustice. If you believe something you should act like you do and until now, with the evidence I have been given, my beliefs are fairly obvious, I’m a Catholic. However, I’m open to evidence to the contrary. This is intellectual honesty and at the same time, intellectual honesty does not allow for putting apples and oranges on the table and then pronouncing them the same thing–neither does it allow for acting like they are the same thing. Yes, Buddhists and Catholics are both fruit. The 1970’s established that. Now we can move on.
Humanism appears to be a religion of its own… surprise! Once again go back to the second half of my first post and consider the first formal real founder of this ‘religion.’ Read his works, they are very detailed. Most humanists probably know of him but don’t know he created a “Religion of Humanity” complete with a Catechism, priests and seven sacraments of humanity. Sounds pretty exclusive?
